The heavy workload period's finally come to an end so I've got some time to do something for my portfolio.

I'm kinda new to gameart and am a bit confused about how or if we're suposed to shade/light our characters...

Model and texture your character, following the polygon guideline, then pose them on a stand for final entry. Check out the official site for all specifications.

Originally Posted by coCoKNIght:Also, does 6k polys mean 3k quads? I'd say so, but then that would be a whole lot...

6k tris means... 6k tris. There should be an option to triangulate your model. If you do so, and you have less than 6k polygons, you're all set. If you had exactly 3k quad polygons and triangulated them, then you would, in fact, have 6k tris. Chances are, however, you will need to use tris in your modeling, so remember to triangulate, check, then undo from time to time.

Originally Posted by Imagus:Model and texture your character, following the polygon guideline, then pose them on a stand for final entry. Check out the official site for all specifications.

I have of course checked out the official site, and you haven't answered my question.

Originally Posted by Imagus:If you had exactly 3k quad polygons and triangulated them, then you would, in fact, have 6k tris.

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. I was only unsure because the last time I peeked into a game art competition I didn't understand how they ended up using so much polys in their objects... so I thaught triangulating maybe does more than just make tris out of all faces.

Originally Posted by coCoKNIght:I have of course checked out the official site, and you haven't answered my question.

As far as lighting goes, I'm pretty sure you can do just about anything. Most current-gen games are capable of pretty advanced lighting, and you're definitely going to want to show off your model as best you can.

1 is the humanesque armored honor kind of alien
2 is the bulletproof berserk kind of alien - his body's out of an unknown material, he doesn't need any armor or cloth. Has lots of spikes on his back.
3 is the big longlimbed kind of alien - I imagine him very calm or detatched. Maybe a keyboard and displays would fit him well
4 is a weapon to acompany my character. small agile flying weapon and shield in one. Hope that's allowed but don't see why not... Allows for the character to do something else with the hands, instead of holding a gun.

And now for a human concept:
She has a dual screen on her helmet and can command the nr.4's from the first doodle while hacking into a enemy facility, placing bombs, loading wheapon, sending information to her stealth ship in orbit... you name it!
I'm not sure yet if a really big wheapon would fit her better or maybe a small handgun...

It is true, we've been sleeping a long time, and in our dreams, we have learnt much about the subconsious.
Our shadows, still half asleep and guided by their reliable steeds, possess the ability to enter any being's mind and alter it for the society's purposes. But that's not all, then the subconscious is even capable of bending reality, allowing those powerful enough to control it, to move so fast they're almost invisible - even without mind manipulation - go through walls and melt steel, to name a few.
Our enemies will lern to fear the power of dreams!

subscribing. best of luck and have fun! ahahaha expecting 6k of pure destruction for this is wartime ^^ go go go mate!
the 3leg is priceless rofl. so weird! and the wormey thing actually is ahahahaha wormy! brimg on the dreamdoomers!

Originally Posted by coCoKNIght:I have of course checked out the official site, and you haven't answered my question.

Oops. I really do try not to throw general, unhelpful responses but, not quite understanding the question, I mistakenly gave you a sort of glossed-over, "well, THAT'S obvious..." kind of response.

My apologies. Let's try that again...

Originally Posted by coCoKNIght:I'm kinda new to gameart and am a bit confused about how or if we're suposed to shade/light our characters...

As the contest is a character creation contest, not just a modeling contest, then you should, in fact, both "shade" and light your character. By "shade", you should include at least a basic texture. Optionally, you may also want to include diffuse, specular, glow and (this one's very important if you want to have a chance at winning, but it's also the trickiest) normal maps. Checking around these forums and looking for online tutorials, you should be able to pick up the basics, or you can post here with more detailed questions.

For lighting, you would render the character out in the software of your choice, with all of the texture, etc. maps applied. You needn't worry about importing it into an existing game engine (unless you feel it's something you REALLY want to do... ) As far as lighting specifics, I'm not sure there's a specific configuration to follow... probably good, even lighting that shows that your character looks good from all angles would be best.

Hope this helps a lot more than the last response, and best of luck with your entry.

Originally Posted by coCoKNIght:Thanks for the warm welcome Imagus, Squibbit and bonzepeet

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